


Go Get 'Em, Pretty Boy

by draculard



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Don't ask me why on earth Thrawn would authorize a dangerous mission for all three of them, Exasperated coworkers to friends to lovers, F/M, Faro is hot that's all you need to know, Ficlet, Humor, International Fanworks Day 2021, Mild offscreen violence, Rarepair, Rated T for Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29388009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculard/pseuds/draculard
Summary: Eli and Faro, flirting on the battlefield together while Thrawn takes down the bad guys by himself. That's it, that's the whole story.
Relationships: Karyn Faro/Eli Vanto
Comments: 13
Kudos: 29





	Go Get 'Em, Pretty Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Lowkey inspired by chaos_monkey and Revakah's fic [Oops.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19743961/chapters/46730410)
> 
> Come say hi on tumblr, I'm draculard there too

Six meters away, on the other side of the stone barricade, blasters were wailing, pirates were grunting in pain, and Admiral Thrawn was busy breaking bones. Eli listened carefully, his head cocked, for his signal to emerge. Next to him, her elbow touching his, was Faro, waiting just as intently for the signal to trigger the explosives they’d planted all around the port.

“Is this what it’s always like with him?” she asked Eli.

He put his hands over his head and ducked as a piece of bloodied armor went shooting over the barricade. “More or less,” he said.

Faro gave a disinterested grunt. “No wonder you look so stressed all the time,” she said. She didn’t look particularly stressed herself, Eli noted with some envy; she looked as comfortable sprawled out in the mud on a battlefield as she did on the bridge. But he supposed that made sense; she was closer in age to Thrawn than to him, and he knew she’d fought in the Clone Wars before transitioning to the officer candidate school. 

He sneaked a glance at her. Her face was hard, sharp cheekbones and a sharper jaw, the bones so delicate that they looked like they might break through her skin. Beneath the bulky fatigues they wore, Eli knew her body was as compact and lithe as any professional athlete's, her frame full of muscle and grace.

And she was warm. Incidentally, she was about the only warm thing on this godforsaken planet. Eli shifted a little closer to her so he could feel her body heat leaking through her uniform.

“You’re shivering,” Faro noted, her eyes still pinned to her timer. “Is that because of nerves or because of the cold?”

Eli scoffed. “I’ve been stuck with the admiral for ten years. You really think anyone can spend that much time with him and still get nervous?”

A smirk tugged at the corner of Faro’s lips. “Fair point.”

On the other side of the barricade, a pirate rather optimistically shouted, “We’ve got him now!” A moment later, the same voice erupted in a strangled, cut-off shout of surprise. Eli and Faro listened for a moment to the sounds of hand-to-hand combat.

“You know,” said Faro musingly, “I wasn’t sure about Thrawn when he got assigned to the Chimaera, but…”

“He grows on you,” Eli agreed.

“Well, I won’t go _that_ far,” said Faro with a faint smile. “But he’s not as bad as I thought.” She glanced sideways at him, eyes sparkling with humor. “And he comes with a pretty decent aide.”

Considering she was the only thing keeping him warm, Eli decided not to scowl at her for that 'aide' comment. He glanced at her timer and shifted onto his knees, keeping his head below the barricade and getting his blaster ready. His signal to join the battle was coming soon. Beside him, Faro sat up a little too, one hand on the detonator. 

“It’s nice to work with competent people again,” she said conversationally as a bloody gauntlet flew over the barricade, this time with at least part of a pirate’s hand inside.

“Er, yeah,” said Eli, shooting her a quick, surprised look. Was that a compliment? He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Faro compliment someone before. “Yeah, it’s not bad. And—” He blurted out the first compliment that came to mind and immediately regretted it, his entire face burning red. “—and you’re good at leading, too. You’re a good leader, I mean. A good XO.” His eyes darted down to her body, specifically the way the rain- and mud-soaked uniform clung to her skin and accentuated her muscles. "Competent," he said. 

Faro tossed him an amused look as he stammered into silence. “Thanks,” she said lightly. “And you’re pretty good at following orders.”

Eli was still trying to figure out what that meant when he heard her mutter, “Doesn’t get nervous anymore, my ass.”

He didn’t have time to reply. The signal from Thrawn came a moment later, and Eli sprang to his feet, charging into battle with his blaster set to kill. In the flurry of motion, he almost didn’t hear Faro receive her signal, too — and then the explosives were going off, and the battle was on in earnest, and there was no time to think.

Only later would he process the fact that Faro had slapped his ass and said, “Go get ‘em, Pretty Boy,” as he left.


End file.
